“Kurt Cobain smells like Teen Spirit.” A graffiti motto scrawled by Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna on the inside of Cobain’s Olympia, WA, home managed to use the name of a deodorant marketed to teenagers to incite a musical revolution. Inspired by the graffiti—and by participation in a radical West Coast political and musical community—Cobain penned one of the anthems of the late 20th century, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The unexpected success of the song propelled the Nirvana album Nevermind to the top of the music charts and made 1992 “the year that punk broke,” as the Sonic Youth documentary of the same name put it. What had formerly been punk rock, indie rock, the musical underground, was now “alternative music,” and it had entered the mainstream.

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” was lauded by critics, topping the Village Voice’s annual Pazz & Jop critic’s poll. The video won two MTV Video Music Awards and was on heavy rotation on music television. The video was another way for the song to reach its audience—the disaffected youth of Generation X. It features hairy-armpitted cheerleaders at a parody of a high school pep rally that may capture the spirit of the event more authentically than any other representation of “school spirit.” Fueled by frustration, malaise, and apathy, the cheerleaders and crowd of shabbily dressed high school students in the bleachers slowly writhe and head-band through a thick wave of smoke while the band burns it up in this groundbreaking video.

“Teen Spirit” Fragrances